Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin tried to find the positives in a disappointing derby day defeat at home to Dundee earlier today.

The result leaves United winless from their opening three league games, and winless in four. Despite an unkind fixture list which saw his side open at home to Rangers, before travelling to Tynecastle. A League Cup draw at home to Celtic was up next, before a derby day where form didn’t go out the window.

Much like his post-match reaction to the Hearts game two weeks ago, Goodwin noted how the scoreline wasn’t a full reflection of the afternoon as it was another one where Dundee United just couldn’t find the net.

Goodwin said: “Dundee looked dangerous on the counter attack at times, but defensively, I thought they were very rarely troubled.

“The opening goal unfortunately comes from us having what looked like a very promising counter attack… The reaction after that is poor in terms of trying to get the ball back. Take nothing away from the strike, it’s a hell of a strike from 35 yards.”

“I know what this game is all about at the end of the day. It’s all about winning games of football, results are what matter most. I don’t need to look at the stats from the game today to see that we’ve probably had more possession of the ball, more attempts on goal, more penalty box entries, more dangerous attacks. But, it counts for nothing if we don’t have the three points to show for it at the end of it and that’s the reality of the situation we find ourselves in.

“I believe in this group of players, I believe in my staff. I believe we’re doing lots and lots of good things in the week, but ultimately, all of that hard work we’re doing Monday to Friday needs to come to fruition at the weekend and in the last three weeks unfortunately that hasn’t been the case.”

He was then pushed on reasons for why his side haven’t scored for three games in a row now, Goodwin said: “Of course, we spend time working on every area of the squad, there’s different sessions for different days of the week and a lot of those sessions are based around the final third in terms of crossing and finishing exercises, no different to what any other team out there does.

“It’s hard to replicate the atmosphere and the tension that’s there on a match day on the training pitch.

“I don’t think the recent results are down to a lack of effort or a lack of commitment from anyone of my players. I’ve got to take responsibility on my shoulders as the manager. I’ve signed all of these players, I’ve brought them all to Dundee United, I believe in every single one of them.

“If you look back on the key metrics we analyse games by, I think you’ll see we’ve probably had the better of most situations in the last couple of games in particular, but we certainly don’t have the results to show for that. Law of averages would say that if we have the better of all those metrics than the opponent, the results will change with it. That’s what my message to the players is.”

Goodwin was asked about the reaction from Abdoulaye Yoro, who gave the ball away prior to Drey Wright’s goal, and whether he could have done better to win the ball back afterwards. He said: “He’s a young player, he’s coming from a different type of league and a different environment. We had that conversation at half-time and he knows what’s expected. I don’t mind the mistake, players throughout the team are going to make mistakes from time to time, you know, honest mistakes, but the reaction is important to me. I want the reaction after that to be a positive one to help the team out to make sure that we get back in and rectify that mistake.”

Speaking on injury updates, especially that of Will Ferry, who it seemed like would miss the match despite playing the full 90, Goodwin said: “Well yesterday in the build up to the game, doing the press conferences, you don’t want to give the opposition every last bit of information. I don’t like lying to you guys (the press) cause you’re all a good bunch of boys, but at the end of the day, we tried to keep that one in house. It is what it is, we don’t want to give the opposition too much information, but Will trained the last couple of days, trained well and wanted to play. He’s been our best player for the last two years.

“Manny (Emmanuel Agyei) just felt his hamstring tightening up yesterday. We sent him for a scan, there’s a wee bit of swelling around the area, but nothing major, there’s no tears or serious strains or anything like that. We’re pushing and hope to have him next week, because he’s a big loss for the team in terms of the performance and what he gives to the team. But I don’t think we’ve lost the game because of Agyei’s absence. ”

United have little time to feel sorry for themselves as they travel to Rugby Park next week to face fellow winless side Kilmarnock.